For me, gaining double bass speed has been a long battle of trial and error. Here's what's helped me. 1. Most importantly, practice with a metronome. There's tons of videos that are helpful. Get a routine and stick to it. 2. Pedal and throne settings. This of course is preference. One thing that helped me is having my throne a bit higher so my legs are not at a 90 degree angle. I noticed Chris Turner sat pretty high and tried it and it helped me alot. 3. Do leg strengthening exercises and stretches. You don't have to go nuts but it helps with endurance.
nice nerve track in the background! Nothing has helped my pursuit for cleaner, faster and consistent double bass more than strengthening my core through exercise. I naturally play with my hip flexors/quads so I believe this is why. I'm currently working on developing my ankles and calfs more to control faster strokes. This video puts my mind at ease because I always felt that double bass was more of a challenge for me. Nothing beats consistent practice!
I got really good fast double bass (can play 280 bpm for extended periods). What i did was learn to use all muscle groups first. I used to hold one knee (remove balance issue) and just play one pedal by tapping it like a basketball. Once i got the motion i just played alot, and focused more on endurance and control than speed. Trying to relax and make the motion automatic is also important. It's strange that relaxation actually allow the greatest speed. My workouts consisted of single foot warmups - then 2-4-6-8 bar bursts at increasing tempo - then just play non stop to fatigue
YES that's exactly it :) I can't play as fast as you but I'm really training all my muscle groups like you and sticking to a routine. Thank you for the great insight !
@@ArtOfDrummingHQ you are a phenomenal drummer so you'll get there in no time. Songs that are great for double bass endurance and speed are twilights of the thundergod, laser cannon death sentence, and homo sum. Working towards these songs is a great way to make exercise less boring. But you would probably rather play something more musical :)
Very useful video ! One more point ! Take care of your back while drumming because sometimes even without noticing it you'll have a bad back posture and with you'll develop injuries which is not really cool obviously !
Same here. It is so frustrating. And I, dont, wanna be that, fast. I, just, want to, be able, to play some Agalloch, Opeth, Ulver, Borknagar and Moonspell songs
Check out my latest double bass routine video. I've refined it over the years to help my students and myself achieve the speeds they want. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4nBC8inxlh8.html
I've been a drummer for a long time, and I can truly and honestly say that playing fast tempos with the feet is the most difficult and challenging thing I've ever tried to do when it comes to drumming. Somehow it physically never really feels good to me. I always end up cramping up, like I'm heading for some muscle injury in my feet. But maybe this just ain't for me... It's about sending signals from my brain to my feet, and make my feet move the way I want to. If this doesn't happen, for whatever reason, then maybe I just wasn't meant to be able to do this. Not everybody is a Thomas Lang or a Virgil Donati. For me it never leads to joy, fulfillment or satisfaction. All I ever got out of it is disappointment and frustration. That's why I've given up. I don't want that negative energy anymore. And to all those ultra fast speed devils I'd like to say: Have fun with it and good luck to you.
I’ve been practicing double bass regularly for the past 5 months but can’t seem to play comfortably past 130bpm. I have a set of exercises I do but can’t seem to progress maybe my balance is off or Im not sitting right. Whenever Im playing it seems like my muscles lock up. Im not sure, double bass is fairly new to me I just keep trying to be patient with myself. But anyway it was cool to see the anatomy of double bass and what makes it difficult. If you have any exercises you do it would be cool if I could maybe see them.
I do actually have exercises for you and I can help you with your double bass. I can go better in detail through email, so feel free to drop me an email at dreamusichef@gmail.com
i've been playing double bass for the past 5 years, last year i switch to singles and can't even play simple beats, i think i hurt my hamstring and calf muscle, can any one help how will i regain my single pedal technique...
If you hurt your muscles, you gotta recover first, don't injure them further. I had to stop drumming for 5 weeks because of a tendon injury in my right foot last year. Then after that, slowly get back into drumming, but be careful, take care of your muscles, find out the particular stretches and muscle exercises you need to get them in shape, and don't overexert yourself and go too fast, too hard, too soon.
Make sure you’re relaxed. And make sure your pedal spring tension is not too high. The only sole purpose of the spring is to return the pedal board for your next hit. You want to go as low tension as you possibly but that still gets your pedal board Back in time for your next note. For me this only mid tension on an iron cobra. On a pearl pedal it’s low tension, there springs are stronger. So I’d say try bringing spring tension down a good 7 or 8 turns and take your hand and pump 4 fast notes in a row with your hand. We’re you able to get them still. Try going a few more turns looser and pump again with your hand, still got the 4 fast hits. Good. Try that. Many drummers play way higher tension than they need and it’s only causing more effort to play fighting against the spring.
Unless you’re playing speed metal high tension is wasted effort. Plus with speed metal most of those guys are playing with their beaters close to the kick drum head. With close beater distance this creates less spring tension. So they have high tension but they have close beater distance which makes it less high. So if you have your beaters set up like most drummers at about 45 degree angle that adds more tension than speed metal drummers who keep real close beater distance. If you don’t play speed metal, and don’t have close beater distance def get those springs backed off. You will feel your control come back
I'm trying to go slower for the click but as soon as I reach like 120-130 bpm I start going too fast for the the click I can comfortably play eights single footed at that speed (both feet) but I just go too fast and I've been going at a steady pace for weeks now. It's so frustrating cause I can't just do it the speed I know I need to do. Triplets I can do up to 160 (cleanly) no problem, so I don't understand why my feet are being lame.
Perhaps you can tell me how you are practicing, what is your weekly routine, how long is a single session, as many details as you can give me. And when you are playing 16ths at 120bpm, what do you feel around the 1 minute mark. Do you feel like you're going off balance, which part of your legs do you feel are working and or tensing? Any information would help me see your problem more clearly.
@@ArtOfDrummingHQ I used to be a much better drummer but stopped when I was 19 because I had eczema on my hands and it's been almost six years (so that's the foundation of the frustration haha). I practice just my feet atm because my hands haven't gotten as bad, but I start off with single footed eighth notes alternating feet after a bar. Start from 100bpm to make sure my timing is good and when I've done gone through it multiple times without failure I go up 5bpm usually up to about 140bpm if my legs are fresh. Then I do the same but alternating feet for a bar of eighth notes then sixteenth notes, hit 120bpm get frustrated and start from 60bpm then get back to 120bpm. Then I'll fall onto my trusty triplets and try to do three minutes straight at 140bpm. I also do this exercise I saw that does like a paradiddle quarter notes then straight eigth notes but the lead foot constantly changes which is a good brain buster. I keep going in and out in waves trying to 120 for long periods of time but I can do 115bpm for two minutes and my quads and hips feel it the most.
@@ArtOfDrummingHQ oh and I practice for an hour everyday, I'm mainly the singer in my band but we fired the drummer so I'm trying to get back up to my skills so I think some of it might be mental but I dunno. When I was sixteen I was progressing faster than I am getting my skills back which doesn't help either.
If you look at the fastest metal drummers, even the less ideally built ones, you'll see that they have incredibly toned calves and hip flexors. Alex Rudinger, Chris Turner, Derek roddy, Virgil donati, Thomas. Lang, marthyn jovanovich... Etc etc. Perhaps name me some drummers with skinny and toneless legs that can play as fast as these guys.